compelled

My sister gave me a subscription to a magazine called The Sun. The mag is an "ad-free, monthly magazine that publishes an eclectic mix of personal essays, fiction, interviews, poetry and photographs." When I get an issue in the mail, I can't put it down.

The current issue has an interview with a Benedictine nun (or Sister) named Joan Chittister. Sister Chittister's been a nun for fifty-five years and is widely known as "one of the most outspoken and articulate social critics and religious leaders of our time." The interview is titled, "Be Not Silent: Sister Joan Chittister Speaks Out On War, Feminism, And The Catholic Church." Her thoughts on the war? Boo! On Feminism? Yippee! On the Catholic Church? {sigh}

Here's a taste of the interview:

Question: You're engaged in political affairs, but you're also a religious person. Do you feel more politically engaged than religiously engaged? Or is this a false dichotomy?

Chittister: I wouldn't be involving myself with social questions if I weren't a Benedictine Sister. I am not a politician. Nor was Jesus. But he kept pointing out how the system failed the people it purported to serve. Benedictines read from the Scriptures three times a day, every day. We start on page one of Genesis and continue on, reading a little at a time, until we reach the last page of Revelations. Then we start all over again. I would not be doing what I'm doing now if I were not hearing the psalmists and the prophets dealing with much the same problems in their time, and if I did not have the story of Jesus walking from Galilee to Jerusalem, picking people up out of the dust, raising people from the dead, curing lepers, and giving sight to the blind.

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